Hardik Pandya aces beyond boundary: From signing brands to launching his own

Hardik Pandya has launched his own performance wear brand.

In the works for over a year, Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder was waiting for the right time to launch his performance wear brand called 'Hardik Pandya', which he did right after the T20 World Cup.

Soon after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup, several Indian players have been busy signing new endorsements, while Pandya was caught up with the launch of his own brand.

A product line of his own keeps brand Hardik Pandya alive beyond his cricket career, said Nikhil Bardia, head of Rise Worldwide, a sports entertainment and lifestyle venture that exclusively manages the brand portfolio of Pandya.

"This (a brand of his own) helps overall brand Hardik Pandya. It (his brand) can let his brand (endorsement) partners launch limited edition products with the HP logo," he said.

The cricketer currently endorses 20 brands with an average endorsement value of Rs 2.5 crore and average deal duration ranging between 2-3 years. His brand value stood at $38.4 million last year, according to an analysis by advisory firm Kroll. He made his debut in 2022 in the list of most valuable Indian celebrities with a brand value of $34.8 million.

"The World Cup has fast-tracked a lot of brand conversation. However, signing partnerships do not happen overnight. We continue to see good interest in Hardik. Now, what is important is not how many brands he is signing but what these brands are doing to brand Hardik Pandya and how much value they are adding to his brand," Bardia said.

Among the playing XI, Pandya ranks third in terms of brand value. Leading the pack is Virat Kohli with a brand value of $227.9 million, followed by Rohit Sharma at $41 million, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah.

Fast bowler Bumrah is estimated to have a brand value of $17 million, noted Aviral Jain, managing director, valuation advisory services, Kroll. He added that Rishabh Pant's brand value stands at about $15 million.

Brand experts say it is a close call between Pant and Suryakumar Yadav for the fifth position in terms of brand value.

Making of brand Hardik Pandya.

Brand Pandya

On Pandya's brand launch, Bardia said that it is every athlete’s dream to have their own identity and their legacy. "This is important because when you reach a certain level as an athlete you want to be closer to your fans. And building a brand is what we look at for all our athletes," he said.

For Pandya, launching performance wear (clothes designed to wear for workouts, sports and other such physical activities) was a natural choice, Bardia said.

"There are two important things that athletes talk about. One is the process. How one can win or lose a match but it is the process a player should enjoy. For Hardik, there are two important things in his journey. What he wears and his cricket equipment. Cricket equipment varies as per what level of athlete one is. We launched activewear because he wanted to inspire his fans to work out, to achieve their game and think beyond the ordinary. So, we launched activewear because this is what he wears everyday, he trains in them everyday," Bardia said.

In the first phase of product launch, there are 20 products available online on FC Shop, the merchandise platform of the live sports streaming service FanCode. The brand was launched late last week.

"We have put out 24 products. We will double that in the next two weeks by August 15 and then there will be 50 odd products. We have been working with him on this for a year now. The timing (of the launch) was important because he is playing again in the India tour of Sri Lanka. He has got a busy schedule," said Yannick Colaco, co-founder, FanCode. Its parent company is sports technology company Dream Sports.

He added that the available and upcoming products under brand Hardik Pandya are purely under the performance wear range. "We consciously worked with Hardik Pandya on what his brand resonates with. The first range had to be something close to him and he wanted to build products that he would train with. On the day of the launch also he told me he is training with all these products."

Colaco is also in discussion with partners to expand Pandya's brand offline under this multi-year deal.

Bardia is optimistic about demand for quality performance wear especially when it comes from an athlete like Hardik Pandya. "It (Pandya's brand) connects, motivates and adds to the demand of people wanting to get fit. Also, activewear is not only for workouts in the gym. It can be used for yoga, running. He has worked on the design, colour. Hardik Pandya loves black. And the reason we chose FanCode was because we get flexibility in terms of price point and also in terms of sales. This flexibility will bring fans closer to Hardik."

Sports merchandise

For FC Shop, Hardik Pandya's brand is the first sports celebrity brand on the platform.

"Sports brands that fans love are events/tournaments/leagues, teams and then athletes. Events and leagues we have brought to the FC shop. In terms of teams, we featured all 10 IPL teams along with football teams like Liverpool, Barcelona. What was left was the athlete brand. This is the first time we are working with an athlete to bring to life his brand. We would like to build this line. There are a number of athletes across sports who fans love so we will look at expanding this line," Colaco said.

The platform saw a strong surge in sales during IPL as well as the 2024 T20 World Cup. "India’s fan jersey worth Rs 999 remained the most popular item followed by fan merchandise of the Indian team. We also had a limited edition Champions t-shirt that was put on sale within minutes of India lifting the trophy. The first batch was sold out within hours of it being available," Colaco said.

Currently, cricket has the lion's share in terms of sales on FC Shop. Cricket is on top and occupies the largest share in terms of percentage, almost 80 percent, but other sports too are catching up, Colaco said. "We are increasing the choices for fans in football, Olympic sports and are looking at more such partnerships in other sports."

For the Olympics, the company will be working with JSW and have set up their online store. "We will also be selling the official merchandise, jerseys on FC Shop and producing fan merchandise for stars like Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindhu among others. For the widest distribution, we will be working with Myntra, Zepto as well. For the first time, fans will have the power to showcase their Olympic fandom," Colaco said.

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